


She Refused To Relocate Hammerhead

by leiden_potato



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, because cindy is too cool to have sat twaddling her thumbs, during the ten years, finding hope in a garage, she was the golden sunshine when there was no sun, u go gorl!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 19:35:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10343136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiden_potato/pseuds/leiden_potato
Summary: She refused to move Hammerhead to Lestallum for one very good reason.





	

The first month that the Endless Night began, the Prince’s blonde friend showed up at the garage asking for her. 

His hair was a flat mess, the dark circles under his eyes and the permanent tear stains on his red cheeks told her he wasn’t here to clean the Regalia. 

“She’s gone.” He said the moment their eyes met. “He’s gone…” 

Gently, as if he will break if she spoke too loudly, she asked. “Who is gone, sweety?” 

“Noct! The car! The sun! All of it! Everything is gone!” As if saying it out loud made him realize it, Prompto dissolved into tears. “Noct is gone! He’s just- he- We can’t do anything! What can we do when he’s all we had to- I’m so confused!” 

She pulled a plastic chair by the caravan and helped him ease into it. Having seen him confidant and proud many times before now, it was heartbreaking to see what a small man he really was hunched over and sobbing. “What happened?” 

“I don’t even know!” He choked, “One moment he was there and the other- we told him to go first but he wasn’t supposed to- We just-” 

The more he tried to explain, the more he suffocated on the words. “It’s awright, now, It’s complicated, I understand.” Cindy pulled a chair next to him and sat in silent support until he was ready to speak again. 

After what felt like an hour he spoke again, his voice thick and congested. “Why go on anymore?” the tears started again, but he tried to stay brave. “He’d want me to fight but I just… I can’t do it on my own.”

 

“Where are the others?”

 

He shrugged. “They kind of… Had their own plans and I didn’t wanna get in the way…” He wiped his eyes repeatedly. “But Noct… He was my friend… My

**_friend_ **

! and now…”

 

She smiled and laid her hand on his, it surprised him. “Paw Paw said yer weapons an magic depend on the permission of the king, right?”

 

“Uh-huh?” he nodded, still startled that she was actively touching him.

 

“And if he aint there, or he aint yer friend anymore, ye can’t do nothing.“

 

“Yeah… I guess?”

 

She shrugged. “Well, can ye conjure up yer weapons or not?”

 

Prompto attempted to pull up his pistols, and his mouth hung open when they appeared out of thin air into his grip. “Does that mean…?”

 

She rubbed his head and pushed off her chair, whistling a merry tune. “If yer done cryin over nothin, I’d like ya to clear up a path down south. Tokka’s deliveries need savin from some Flans!”

 

* * *

  


 

Three months into the Endless Night, a tow truck pulled up into Hammerhead. She could only recognize the wreckage at the back by the twisted license plates from Insomnia: RHS-113

 

“Thats…!” Her heart sunk, but not as much as when the man in the passengers seat hopped down. “Scientia, right? The King’s guard.”

 

“Ignis, yes.” He offered a curt nod and adjusted his shades. “I’m glad you remember us.”

 

“O’course.” She watched as a short child descended from the driver’s seat with horror. “Did that

_kid_

drive the truck here?!”

 

Ignis turned his head in the general direction of the uncomfortable Talcott. “Society has collapsed, there are no more laws in this world.” He couldn’t see her mortified glare. “Besides, we have only driven from Insomnia’s highway  to here.”

 

“Yeah!” Talcott said, “It was a straight line! Almost…”

 

“Thank god for that… and… are you okay?” She finally asked, wary about the Prince’s bodyguard seemingly without weapons or friends. “How’s life been?”

 

The answer was complete and utter silence.

 

“Right.” She sighed. “And why’d ya bring her here, the poor girl?”

 

This, he could answer. “Can you fix her?”

 

“Fix’er? After you drove her off a cliff five times?” 

 

Strangely, the stoic man cracked a smile. “He will be back, and he will need transportation.”

 

As upset as she was for the utter destruction of her favorite customer, it warmed her heart that this blind man could still see light at the end of the tunnel.

 

“Only Paw Paw knows how to get into the nitty gritty of this model, but he’s not here.”

 

Ignis held back a gasp. “I’m sorry…”

 

“No, no, he’s alive!” She chuckled. “Went to Lestallum to recover from a nasty encounter with a Tonberry. Thought it was a child, ya see, the little shortie had a knife sharper than a razor and it nicked something. Paw Paw may not be jogging as fast anymore, but at least he’ll be safe with that generator keepin the night out.”

 

“I see. If I am ever there again, I will pay him a visit to thank him for everything he, and you of course, had done to help up throughout our journey.” 

 

“It was my pleasure, honey.” She glanced at the wreck still attached to the tow truck, and then back at the two visitors. “I’ll see what I can do for her while you’re here, though, and as payment I need ya to stick round and help Tokka out with the diner. You can cook, cantcha?”

 

His shoulders squared slightly. “I used to…”

 

She wasn’t taking no for an answer. “Little chocobo here can help ya readjust, I aint running a charity here.”

 

“Of course.” He said, and then added more gently, “Thank you.”

 

* * *

  


 

About four years into the Endless Night a massive colony of Red Giants started swarming in from the crater in the north, and some serious hunters were contacted to control their numbers.

 

Prompto showed up among those who answered, of course, that ball of sunshine always answered if he knew the bounty was put up by Hammerhead. His eyes were still dark rimmed and sunken, but he seemed more cheerful than the last time she’d seen him.

 

Ignis showed up, too; saying something about needing to test his fighting skills in a real battle if he was going to get any better at it, Talcott who had been a child when they lodged here had grown up considerably. Still a skinny chickobo, but his eyes were dark and focused; a child of war.

 

The taller one showed up, too. A smooth talker and undeniable chick magnet, that one; she could tell there was always a wall up between him and the world.

 

 

“Gladiolus,” He reminded her of his name at the diner after the group of hunters finished their meal and turned in for the night. “Thanks for all you’ve done, the boys tell me this place had become something of a headquarters for them.”

 

She grinned and rested her hands on her hips. “Music to my ears! Y’all are welcome here any time ya need. You too, big guy.”

 

His smile was polite and practiced, “O’course.”

 

She sat herself on the stool next to him and eyed the lukewarm Jetty’s he’s been nursing for an hour. “No Alcohol before a big fight, aint that the hunter code?”

 

He scoffed, “As if there’s any real alcohol left in the world…” There was a pause, and when he looked up she was grinning ear to ear. “No way!”

 

“Paw paw had a stash in his office upstairs, but now he’s in the town of wine and I dun touch the stuff. I use it for trading but there’s still one crate o cheap beers and a big honkin thing of vodka.”

 

His interest was tangible but she was hesitant about actually allowing him to drink before a big day.

 

Just when it seemed like he was going to suggest they get the bottle opener, he turned back to the berry-flavored fizzy drink and thumbed the peeling sticker. “Is it a good idea to fight seven Red Giants with a hangover, though?” Before she could say anything, he went on, “Then again, why not, you know? I spent my whole life training to be his bodyguard, and now he’s just up and gone.”

 

“Oh…”

 

“I should be happy! I never wanted to live my life as someone’s attendant, you know? I’m finally free!“ He pushed the bottle aside and hung his head. “But now it’s like I don’t have a purpose. Who was I before I met him? What did I do with my time in the twenty years before the fall?” He sighed, rubbed his eyes, and then pushed off his seat. “Sorry, you didn’t need to hear any of that.”

 

Cindy followed him out into the dewy night. “Your boys tell me differently, though.”

 

He paused, listening.

 

“I can’t tell ya who you were before them, but the pictures i’ve seen on Argentum’s camera, and the stories Scentia told me about your camping days; they couldn’t have gone through it all without you. If anything, your fearless attitude is the reason they believed they could survive it in the first place.”

 

His back was illuminated by the weak neon lights overhead, shoulders tight and head down. “Oh yeah? Well they’re pretty freaking awful about showing it.”

 

“Then how’bout you give’em an earful about it tomorrow and get it off yer chest.” Cindy bumped her shoulder against his arm as she passed by on her way to the garage, “A bottle of Cleigne Premium will be chillin in the fridge waitin for ya to pop’er open, so give yerselves a reason to celebrate.”

 

His smile was genuine this time, “Are you bribing me with alcohol, madam?”

 

“I sure am!”

 

* * *

 

 

She might not be doing much car repairs these days, but nearly ten years into the Endless Night and she refuses to close shop.

 

“He’ll be back.” She tells Talcott where they sit by the front gate, scrubbing rusty bits under the flickering illumination. “He can’t come home if there’s no home to come back to, so we stay put. Even if something happens to me, promise me you’ll keep’er open.”

 

“Don’t say that.” The young adult chides quietly, “For someone so pessimistic about your health you sure are confidant about Noct.”

 

“That’s **King** Noct to ya, kid.” She insists, then slowly puts down the brush and stands up. “Is that an animal or a new kind of daemon…?” Talcott grabs a flashlight and aims it at the the fence where a dark dog sat obediently, tail wagging. “That’s his dog! Uber? Amber..? Umbra! I’ve seen him play with him at the hotel in Lestallum years ago, i’m sure of it!” 

“Open up, let’em in!” She tells the guard at the gate, then turns on her heel to go inside with an excited Talcott and Umbra in tow. “Get me something to write with and fire up the mobile tower, the last of kingsglaive better be here to welcome him back.” 


End file.
